


Ready as I'll ever be

by Iron_Yokai



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Also probably incorrect D&D mechanics, Gen, Oh look Caleb's making bad decisions again, Spoilers for up until the end of the Iron Shepards arc, This time the Nein try to put their foot down though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-07-06 23:26:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15896292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iron_Yokai/pseuds/Iron_Yokai
Summary: Two weeks ago Caleb found what appeared to be a spellbook from ancient times during one of the Mighty Nein's adventures. Two weeks later he's finally deciphered the text held within the book, taking it's secrets for himself. The rituals within are world changing, and possibly world ending, but Caleb's determined that what he's doing is right. The rest of the Nein aren't quite so sure.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone, I'm back again with another story to make you sad. The basic info you'll need before going into this story is that this takes place roughly a year and half after the Iron Shepherds arc and that at some point Astrid and Eodwulf have made an appearance in the story, fleshing out more of Caleb’s backstory. The other major piece of information you need to know is that I love the idea of the Nein making a heroes guild, kinda like Taryon, where they and all of the guest characters take jobs and operate out of. To facilitate this I’ve given them a guild hall in Zadash. Everything else should be explained in the story but if there’s anything that’s unclear or confusing feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to clear it up, barring spoilers of course. Onto the story!

Breakfast was as peaceful as it normally was in the guild hall owned by the Mighty Nein. Beau and Nott had gotten into a small but relatively harmless scuffle over the last of the bacon on the table; encouraged by Jester’s cheering for whoever was winning at the moment while the Fjord and Yasha simply moved their plates out of the path of destruction that was slowly but surely making it’s way down the table towards them. Nott had just managed to stuff the last of the bacon in her mouth, prompting a loud cheer from Jester and cursing in various languages from Beau, when Caduceus and Caleb appeared in the doorway.

“Found him asleep in his study again,” the firbolg led Caleb over to the table and sat him down, something Caleb hardly seemed to notice with his face still buried in the spellbook he had recovered on one of their last jobs. Despite having apparently slept on his books for the third night in a row Caleb looked to be in high spirits as he pored over the pages in front of him. He absentmindedly grabbed the last remaining piece of toast on the table and took a small bite out of it, his eyes never once leaving the pages of his book.

“Whatcha reading Caleb~?” Jester draped herself across the wizard’s head and shoulders as she peeked at the pages of the book, before wrinkling her face into exasperation, “Don’t you have that boring old spellbook memorized by now?”

“I had it memorized the first time I read it but I’m just now understanding it,” Caleb’s voice was as quiet as ever but had an unmissable tone of excitement and hope underneath it, something the rest of the Nein didn’t hear much of from him, “I missed it the first time but this book holds everything I’ve been looking for.” Fjord and Beau exchanged a wary glance at the way their wizard had spoken and Fjord rose from his place at the table to move over to where Caleb was. He leaned over the human’s shoulder, managing to somehow get a view over Jester as well, and quickly scanned the pages of the book. As far as he could tell it was all some kind of arcane scrawlings that made no sense to him but still made him feel uneasy. He couldn’t place why but there was something not right with whatever was written in that book.

“That’s amazing Caleb!” Nott had rushed over as well, grinning widely at Caleb, “So what does it say?” Caleb looked up from his book for the first time since entering the room and matched Nott’s smile with one of his own as he shrugged Jester off his shoulders and stood from his chair.

“This spellbook belonged to Sylthana Mithesir, a powerful archmage from the Age of Arcanum.”

“Uh hey, are we talking about the same elf lady who, according to stories, went crazy and then disappeared?” Caleb didn’t look deterred by Beau’s tone in the slightest and he nodded eagerly.

“Exactly. Except she didn’t disappear, not like everyone thought. She gathered so much arcane power that she didn’t need her physical form anymore and this book explains how she did that. With this I can-”

“Whoa wait a minute here Caleb,” Fjord interrupted, worry covering his face as stepped in front of Caleb, “That sounds an awful lot like becomin’ some sorta dark creature.”

“It sounds like becoming a lich.” Caduceus added from where he was still sitting, albeit looking more stern than the others had ever seen. Caleb shifted uncomfortably and clutched the spellbook to his chest as he surveyed his teammates.

“I suppose it is in a way but just think about the possibilities. I would be arcane energy, I would have enough power to reshape reality.” Tense silence permeated the room as comprehension dawned on the rest of the Nein.

“Caleb no. We’ve talked about this, you don’t want that kind of power.” Beau slowly took a step towards the other human, who backed away from the group a couple of paces.

“What do you mean you’ve talked about this?” Jester asked as she looked back and forth between Beau and Caleb, confusion and worry coloring her face.

“We promised not to say anything!” Nott was indignant as she moved to stand in front of Caleb protectively, her hand straying slightly towards her dagger as she faced the group.

“That was before he showed up to breakfast talking about becoming a godsdamn lich!” By this point Caleb had backed himself against the far wall of the room, Sylthana’s spellbook vanished somewhere into the pockets of his coat in the confusion of the last few minutes. Nott was a few steps in front of him, turned to face both Caleb and the rest of the Nein where they stood on the other side of the room.

“I would not be sacrificing any children Beauregard if that was your worry. I simply need a personal sacrifice, as well as some incredibly rare and expensive material components, but it is well within the limits of morality.”

“Why would you even want to do this? Aren’t liches like super evil and super gross skeletons with glowing eyes?” Caleb sighed softly to himself before addressing Jester, looking both annoyed and fond at the same time.

“I would still possess my sense of self, and my morality to go with it, but ja, my physical form would change. But it does not matter what happens to me when you think about all the good I could do with that much power,” Caleb glanced at Fjord and Yasha, “I could go back and prevent the mutiny on your ship, or even save Mollymauk.”

“He wouldn’t want that,” Yasha said flatly, fixing Caleb with a hard stare as her hand grasped the hilt of her greatsword, “Don’t use Molly to justify this to yourself.” The human visibly flinched at Yasha’s words and his eyes travelled across his companions, taking in their wariness and the various weapons that had started to become unsheathed. Even Nott was looking hesitant as she gripped the handle of her dagger.

“Nott I could give you whatever life you want, just please try to understand. This would be for the greater good and I’m not asking any of you to make sacrifices. Simply just let me do this.”

“You’re askin’ us to sacrifice our morals Caleb. We let you do this and who knows what could happen to the world. Goin’ back and changin’ things to suit your own desires ain’t right.”

“Why do you get to decide that? Why do you get to decide what’s right? You sold your soul to some abomination for power!” The falchion flashed into existence in Fjord’s hand and he levelled the blade at Caleb.

“Fine, you’ve got a point. I got no place tellin’ you what’s right or wrong. But you’ve got no right to be makin’ this decision for us. So hand over the book and let’s have a talk about all this nonsense.” Flame started to dance in the palms of Caleb’s hands as he stared coolly at Fjord before a blur of blue launched itself at his side.

“I’m sorry Caleb but you sound like you’re going crazy and I can’t let you be crazy!” Jester yelled as grabbed for Caleb’s arms but just as her fingers brushed his sleeve she, and the rest of the Nein were frozen in place. Caleb finished the incantation of the spell, cementing the effect for the next 30 seconds and looked sadly at his friends.

“I didn’t want it to come to this but I promise you will thank me for this.” He pulled the spellbook back out from his coat and quickly flipped it open to a page he had bookmarked. Stepping up next to Jester he wrapped a hand around her wrist and with a hushed mutter of arcane knowledge the two of them vanished from the room. As soon as the light of the teleportation faded from the room time seemed to speed up for a few moments, making up for it’s previous frozen state before returning to normal. Despite his disorientation Fjord rushed towards where Caleb and Jester had just been, yelling and cursing in Orc before turning back to the rest of the group. The other members of the Nein finally shook themselves out of their temporal disorientation and the full realization of what had just happened crashed over them.

“We’re going after them! Get your things and let’s go!” Yasha and Caduceus both nodded and went to leave the room when they noticed Beau and Nott both standing perfectly still.

“What are you going to do to Caleb when we find him?” Fjord spun to face Nott and the pure cold fury on his face was enough to rival even Yasha’s worst battle rages. “Whatever we have to do to stop him from putting this stupid, dangerous plan of his into action and save Jester.”

“You can’t hurt him Fjord, I won’t let you. Caleb’s made mistakes but-”

“He kidnapped Jester! He wants to become a lich and rewrite the world! That goes well past makin’ a few mistakes!”

“He has his reasons!” Beau quickly placed herself between the goblin and half-orc and shoved the both of them back.

“Knock it off!” The human looked down at Nott with a sympathetic look, “We’re going after Caleb, we have to. Whatever dumbass plan he has now it’s going to get him hurt so we have to stop him,” She flicked her eyes back to Fjord before continuing, “But we do it non-violently. Caleb’s fucked up and not thinking straight, he needs our help.”

“Listen I’m all for helping those in need of it but what Caleb’s planning on doing is dangerous. You can’t just mess with the natural order of things.”

“So what, you’re going to hurt him? Kill him if it comes to it? What the fuck is wrong with you guys!?”

“I’ll make this real simple,” Fjord’s voice was low and dangerous as he stepped towards Beau and Nott again, “I’m goin’ to find Caleb and stop him, however I have to. For all we know he’s plannin’ on hurtin’ Jester and I won’t stand for that. Are you two with me or not?” The heavy silence that filled the room seemed to suppress even the faint noise filtering in from outside the hall as Fjord stared down at his two teammates.

“Fuck you Fjord,” was the only answer Beau gave him before pushing past him and out the hall, sparing only a quick glare at Yasha and Clay on her way out.

“You don’t know anything about Caleb if you think he’d hurt Jester. All he wants is to finally have some semblance of peace and if anything happens to him I swear I will kill you.” With her quiet threat delivered Nott followed Beau out of the hall, leaving only three. Fjord turned back to Clay and Yasha.

“Are you with me?” They shared a glance before they each gave Fjord a quick nod, “Then let’s go stop Caleb.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! So first things first, after getting a comment about it on the last chapter I realized that I never told you guys what I planned on for an upload schedule and that I do actually have more chapters to this story. My plan for uploading is to try to for every other day until I've got the whole thing posted since I already have a few chapters prepped up in advance but, and this has always been a problem for me in the past, my work schedule is crazy and may lead to an update getting skipped. If that happens I'll try to get one out ASAP but unfortunately I can't make any promises. Thanks in advance for the patience you guys might have to show me.  
> And now with all the boring uploading stuff out of the way on to the actual story related stuff. This chapter includes talks of past torture/abuse, briefly touching on Caleb's time in the asylum, and Caleb's usual bad coping mechanisms. As things in this story start to get a little darker I'll be sure to keep including these warnings at the beginning for anyone who may need them. And so, without further ado, please enjoy!

Caleb nearly lost his footing as he and Jester landed on stone and grass, dizzy from the effort of maintaining both the frozen time and teleportation. In his moment of weakness Jester pulled her wrist from Caleb’s hand and jumped back a few steps.

“What the hell Caleb!? Why did you freeze everyone!? Are they ok!? Where are we!?” Caleb held his hands up placatingly, dismayed at the involuntary flinch Jester gave as if she was expecting him to use magic on her again, and carefully took a step towards her. 

“I’m sorry, I won’t hurt you. I just….” Caleb gave a frustrated sigh and ran one hand roughly through his hair, “I can’t let them stop me. This is too good of a chance to pass up, you have to understand. I can fix everything.”

“By becoming an evil energy monster!?” Before Caleb could react Jester had pulled her shield off her back and charged him, knocking both of them onto the ground with her laying on top of him and holding him down, “Stop being so dumb Caleb! We’re your friends, it’s our job to help you and keep you from making really stupid decisions! And becoming a lich is pretty much the stupidest thing you could ever do!” 

“Jester get off of me!”

“Not until you stop being stupid!” Knowing that he had no other option with Jester’s full weight pressing him down Caleb wrestled his arms free and reached up to touch both of Jester’s temples. Using her brief moment of confusion Caleb pulled on his arcane knowledge, muttering a word that made his tongue burn with the taste of magic and Jester fell off him, her mind stunned by Caleb’s spell. Before she could manage to shake the effect Caleb frantically grabbed for her haversack and reached inside, pulling out a pair of manacles with the same arcane language he had just used etched into them. He could clearly remember the day they had all pitched in to afford the enchantment from Pumat Sol so they’d be ready to face whatever dangers they may encounter in their adventures. Back then using them on one of his teammates was something he’d never even considered.

Caleb was just barely able to lock the manacles into place as Jester slowly shook her head, the effect of the magical stun dissipating. The tiefling looked down at her metal wrapped wrists and then back up at Caleb with tears beginning to form in her eyes. She weakly pulled on the manacles, her strength and magic both robbed by the enchantment.

“Caleb?” The human did his best to look anywhere but at her as he stood and offered his hand to Jester to help her up.

“I’m sorry but I can’t let any of you stop me. I’m too close to finally being able to fix everything I’ve fucked up. All of you will understand one day, I promise,” The sound of rustling and sniffling caused Caleb to look back at Jester, who had tears rolling down her cheeks as she stood up on her own. Guilt and shame spiked through the wizard as he took in the fact that Jester didn’t even look mad at him for everything he had already done. The only emotion he could read on her face was a profound sadness he knew all too well, “Let’s go inside, I have a lot of work to do.” He did his best to shove his feelings down as he turned away from Jester to face the building he had teleported them to. It was a beautiful countryside manor, if not stern and solemn looking as if it’s owner hadn’t been there in months. Which Caleb knew without question to be the case as it had been exactly 3 months and a week since he and his, possibly now former, friends had dispatched Trent Ikithon near the Xhorhasian border. Despite his near perfect memory the day was still a blur of emotion and fire to him.

Caleb led Jester through the front gates of the manor and up the familiar garden path to the large double door entrance. A quick search revealed a trap meant to go off in anyone unknown to the manor crossed the threshold without the owner’s permission but an equally quick dispel took care of the problem and he pushed the doors open. A wave of tangled emotions washed through Caleb as he stepped back into the manor’s foyer for the first time in years and he found himself getting choked up as he looked around. From somewhere in the back of his mind he could hear Astrid and Eodwulf’s voices ringing through the manor, calling to him to join them in whatever foolish idea they had thought up to get themselves in trouble. He closed his eyes for a moment to let the worst of the longing pass before methodically making his way towards the hidden door to where Trent’s true workshop lay beneath the house. A brief glance just behind him confirmed that Jester was still following him as they made their way down the stairs into the basement.

The air was just as cold as he remembered and he resisted the urge to shiver as the cold air brushed against his face. With a snap of his fingers he summoned Frumpkin to lay across his shoulders, working his fingers into the cat’s fur to give himself anything else to focus on as they traversed down the hallway. Caleb did his best to pointedly ignore the open doors they passed that revealed glimpses into rooms filled with the various methods that had been used to punish disobedience and strengthen his will. Jester, it seemed though, had very much been looking into the rooms given the startled sounds she was making behind him.

“Where are we?” Caleb stopped and turned to face his, his fingers still winding their way through Frumpkin’s fur.

“You remember the man we killed at the Xhorhasian front, the one who wanted to hurt Yasha? This is his home and, at one time, it was also mine.”

“You lived in this horrible place?” Caleb nodded and followed Jester’s line of sight to a room he knew all too well. It was rather like his room had been at the asylum, with a thick metal door sturdy enough to stand up to the strongest punishment but without the observation slit the medical door had possessed. This room had been designed to keep it’s occupant completely isolated from both light and sound. He had never been subject to that particular punishment frequently but he could remember the way Astrid would look when she was finally released after days of being trapped in there. The tips of Caleb’s fingers itched and burned as memories swirled through his mind.

“Myself and two others; Astrid and Eodwulf. Trent was our mentor, tasked with turning us into good, little executioners for the Empire. When we were disobedient or showed weakness this is where we’d be taken. Each of us had a particular room that was used when we were particularly deserving of punishment. This one belonged to Astrid,” He looked farther down the hallway to two plain looking wooden doors, “Those were mine and Eodwulf’s. Joined so he could hear me scream but do nothing about it.” Jester’s face was paler than he’d ever seen it before as she looked over his shoulder and then back to him. Carefully she took a step towards him and, upon getting no negative reaction, reached out to place her manacled hands onto his shoulder.

“Can I please have a hug? I want to hug you but I can’t but you need a hug?” Caleb’s heart broke a little at her hoarse plea and he stepped forward into her space despite the way it felt like his skin was crawling. He wrapped his arms loosely around her for a moment before stepping away again and turning on his heel to face back down the hallway.

“The workshop is at the end of the hall, let’s go,” Caleb purposefully set off again, trying to ignore the way it felt like he had swallowed a handful of daggers. The sounds of their footsteps echoed off the stone walls and after what seemed to be far too long they finally reached Trent’s workshop. Another dispel was needed to gain access to the room but there were no other traps guarding it. Caleb nodded to himself when the door swung open to reveal that everything appeared to still be well stocked and before examining the room any further he crossed to the desk and retrieved the chair there. He carried it over to the side of the workshop, a space that could be seen from anywhere in the room but would be well out of the way should anything go wrong, “Please just stay over here and don’t get in the way. I don’t want to hurt you but what I’m going to be doing could be dangerous. I don’t want you caught up if something goes wrong.” 

“If it’s so dangerous then don’t do it, please Caleb. Let’s just go back home,” Caleb ignored her as he made his way back to the desk, retrieving the spellbook from his coat and setting it on the desk. SIlently he began flipping through the pages again, pausing only to grab materials scattered around the shelves lining nearly every wall in the room from floor to ceiling. He was acutely aware of Jester watching his every move and made sure to glance up at her every once and awhile to insure that she wasn’t doing anything that could lead to her accidentally getting hurt. Everytime he did though she would make a point to stare directly into his eyes, causing a fresh surge of regret each time. This carried on for hours as he worked off almost pure instinct, his mind occupied with going over every aspect of the ritual he was going to be performing and how he would keep himself out of reach of the rest of the Mighty Nein until the next full moon in nearly two weeks, “Hey Caleb, can you take a break for a few minutes? I’m hungry and you barely ate anything at breakfast so I know you have to be hungry too so let’s just eat. Oh, I know! I have doughnuts in my haversack!” Caleb sighed and looked wearily up from where he had been in the middle of studying the incantation he was trying to dissect.

“I’m busy Jester, just wait a little while.” Jester groaned loudly and let her head fall onto the back of her chair, slumping down.

“But I’m hungry! Just five minutes, please Caleb~?” When he didn’t respond to her right away Jester began lightly kicking her feet against the legs of the chair and, when that grew boring, she rocked the chair back and forth.

“Verdammt Jester, bitte hör auf!” Jester froze, her chair tilted back towards the wall as she stared at Caleb in shock, “Listen, I will get around to eating with you. But this is more important than anything else right now so stop all that noise so I can finish this.”

“Ok….” Caleb couldn’t bear to look at Jester as she lowered her chair back to the ground, trying to go back to the incantation he had been working on but unable to focus on it through his guilt. After only a few minutes he gave up and closed the book before walking over to where he had left Jester’s haversack earlier. While he was searching through it to collect all the food she had in there a thought sent Frumpkin to drape himself across Jester’s shoulders as a way of apology. When he had recovered a decent amount of Jester’s sweets from the haversack he brought them over to the tiefling, his eyes fixed firmly on the ground as he held out one of the doughnuts he knew to be her favorite. He felt her take it from him and he lowered himself to be sitting on the ground in front of her as he ate his own doughnut. He had never truly cared for the sweetness but he knew he owed her more than just this little pleasure but it was all he could offer at the moment, “Hey Caleb?”

“Hm?”

“Please don’t kill yourself doing this.”

“..... I will try my best.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello once again everybody! Not much to say this time but I do want to just throw it out there that after the latest episode of CR I was very tempted to go back and rewrite parts of this chapter. No spoilers from me and please no spoilers in any comments that may get left but let's just say I wanted to add a new layer of motivation that I chose to leave out here.

The jovial atmosphere of the Evening Nip was almost too much for Fjord to bear as he, Caduceus and Yasha entered the bar. Patrons were drinking and gambling away whatever earnings they had from their recent jobs while the ever present musicians filled the room with lively but subtle ambience. No one other than the bartender looked up as they entered and made their way to where the Gentleman was holding court with a human man. Fjord desperately wanted to shove past the man and demand the help they were looking for but he knew that it would only guarantee that they’d lose not only all of the resources the Gentleman could provide but also their lives. So instead he led his companions to the closest table he could get to the table the Gentleman always used to discuss business and they sat down while the human finished his report. It was strange to be in the tavern without their whole party, their absence from the bar sending Fjord’s thoughts churning. It wasn’t that he believed Caleb would hurt Jester, or even that he didn’t trust the human, but there had been an underlying sense of wrongness to the other’s speech.

The way Caleb had spoken of changing reality had echoed with an emptiness that Fjord knew all too well from his own dealings with the arcane. That kind of power caused an insatiable hunger for more and more and Caleb was already in the dangerous downward spiral that came with it. He didn’t want to hurt the man anymore than he wanted him to go through with his ludicrous idea but Fjord had also accepted the fact that by the time they caught up with him the person they faced might not be Caleb anymore. Fjord was shaken out of his thoughts by a whistle coming from the Gentleman, who was smiling lazily at the three of them as he beckoned Fjord over. 

“Well well, the Mighty Nein; or the Mighty Three I suppose you are right now,” The Gentleman’s drawl matched his grin perfectly as the half-orc sat down across from him, “Before we get to whatever business brought you all here I definitely think a strong drink is in order. The somber look on your face tell me that we’re both going to need at least one glass of good liquor to get through this.” He waved his hand at the bartender and the man hurried over with a large bottle and two glasses. Once a drink had been poured for all the both of them the Gentleman downed his in one swallow and looked at Fjord expectantly.

“We were hopin’ you might be able to help us track down one of our own.”

“Now which one of you managed to get yourselves kidnapped this time? Not the monk I hope, her brashness has a rather unique charm to it.” Fjord took a long drink out of his glass to try and settle his stomach with the burning liquid before answering.

“Actually we needta find Jester; Caleb too but if we find one we’ll find the other,” The Gentleman quirked an eyebrow at him as he refilled their glasses, seemingly waiting for more explanation, “Someone very dangerous has gotten a hold of Jester, someone who might hurt her if we don’t get to her soon.”

“And pray tell, where does your wizard fit into all of this? DId he rush off to play the knight in shining armor?” The Gentleman fixed Fjord with a calculating look and the grin vanished from his face, “Or is he the one who’s putting your dear damsel in distress?” 

“That don’t matter,” Fjord said sharply, trying to keep his face as blank as possible under the close scrutiny, “We need Cree to track down Jester usin’ the blood you took from all of us.”

“While I do truly want to help you all track down your wayward members Cree’s not in the city at the moment. She’s taking care of some business for me elsewhere and won’t be back for at least another week. You’re welcome to borrow her as soon as she’s done of course, but other than that there’s nothing I can do for you.” It felt like all the warmth had disappeared from the room as Fjord processed what the Gentleman had said. If he wanted to track Caleb it was going to be a week, far too long to leave Jester at risk.

“There has to be somethin’ you can do! Anythin’ you want in return we’ll do but we needta find them soon!” A hush fell over the bar as Fjord leapt to his feet, the quiet clicking and scraping of weapons being readying coming from the balcony above him and the table where he had left his friends. The Gentleman looked totally unfazed however and merely continued to study the half-orc in front of him for a minute before waving over Sorah.

“Do me a favor and fetch the case where we’re keeping their blood and a map,” he turned his attention to the guards still standing at the ready on the balcony, “And stand down. I’m not in the habit of having friends shot down in my tavern.” Fjord did his best to regain his calm as Sorah disappeared into the door they knew lead to the Gentleman’s offices and he retook his seat. He could feel the lure of his own arcane power brushing against his mind and phantom barnacles scraped at his palm as he clenched his hands. 

 

_**PROVOKE** _

 

The word wrapped itself around Fjord’s consciousness and for a split second he could feel the physical form of the falchion materialize in his grasp before managing to wrench himself free of the whatever was trying to control his actions. After shaking himself loose from his internal battle Fjord found the genasi staring at him expectantly again.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Your friend, do you know what he’s planning on doing exactly? If it’s an arcane ritual he’s going to need supplies and I’m assuming they’re things that won’t be readily available in your average magic shop.” Fjord paused for a moment, scanning the room to make sure no one was listening in on their conversation, before leaning in across the table.

“I’m not too sure of the specifics but accordin’ to Clay it sounds like he’s lookin’ to become a lich.” Fjord had never seen the Gentleman display anything even close to hesitation, let alone any kind of fear, so the briefest flash of a genuine terror in his eyes was more than enough to tell Fjord everything he needed to know about how much arcane knowledge the other man possessed.

“Well that uh, that is quite the undertaking. A rather ambitious fellow isn’t he? Anyway your best bet with that would be to go to Rexxentrum. There’s a thriving black market there, especially for magical goods and materials. I don’t have any direct ties to the business that happens there but I do have some… friends who owe me a favor or two. In return for the loyalty you’ve shown these past couple years feel free to call in as many as you need to find Caleb,” Fjord was saved from having to flounder for a response to the generous offer by Sorah coming back with the leather case and map her boss had requested of her. The Gentleman took them from her and placed both on the table, rummaging through the case for a moment before withdrawing two vials. He set them on the map and reached to the side to grab a quill that was lying on the table. With a flourish he wrote down a list of several names and then circled a town so small that the text naming it was larger than the whole of the region, “This is where you’ll find Cree. I’ll have word sent that she’s to help you as well, within reason of course. I do still need her to accomplish her task.”

“Y-yes, of course… Thank you.” The Gentleman’s charm and lackadaisical attitude returned in full force as he leaned back in his chair, kicking both feet up onto the table.

“You’re quite welcome. Now do go and stop your wizard from doing whatever ill thought out plan he’s trying to put in motion.” The Gentleman offered him one last easygoing smirk before turning his attention elsewhere in the room as Fjord returned to where Yasha and Caduceus were.

“Any luck?” He laid the map out on the table, pointing to where the circled town as he stowed the vials of blood safely away in a pouch at his side.

“Cree’s here, looks like a couple days ride away. As far as where Caleb could be it looks like Rexxentrum is a good place to start. There’s some sorta magic black market there that’s well stocked and owes our friend here a few debts he’s allowing us to call in.”

“Seems likely he’d go there then,” Caduceus said, studying the map, “After all, he’s familiar with the area.”

“He’s also got enemies there. The two mages from his past.” Fjord nodded absentmindedly at Yasha as he traced the route from Zadash to the town where they’d find Cree.

“We’re headin’ that way anyways to find Cree so there’s no harm in continuin’ if she turns out to be a dead end. We oughta-”

_ “Jester is safe and I won’t hurt her unless I must. I’m sorry it’s come to this. Don’t try to stop me.” _

Fjord jolted as Caleb’s voice rang through his head and he looked wildly around for the source of the voice, his shock making him slow to realize that it had been an arcane message. 

“If you hurt a hair on her head I swear I’ll end you, you hear me you fucking idiot?” Magic buzzed under his skin as he all but growled his response, just as quick to disappear as it had come. Yasha and Caduceus were both looking at Fjord like he had lost his mind, seemingly not having received the same message he had, “It was Caleb sayin’ that Jester’s safe but that he’ll hurt her if he has to. He told me not to interfere.” A dark look crossed Yasha’s face and she snatched the map off the table, brusquely folding it before stuffing it into her pocket.

“Let’s go. We have a lot of ground to cover.” Without waiting for her companions she pushed her way out of the tavern and back up the stairs. Caduceus and Fjord exchanged a look before they both rose from the table as well.

“Well the lady’s spoken. Time to go.” Together they made their way out as well, being much more polite about it than their barbarian friend had been, and onto the main streets of Zadash. Silently the three of them made their way back to the guild hall to prepare for their upcoming journey, and whatever the outcome would be.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again there's really not much to be said here before I start the chapter other than I hope you guys are enjoying this. Seeing the hit count going up each chapter is enough to make my day so I wanted to thank you all so much for taking the time to read this story!

Beau and Nott had spent hours wandering in and out of every shop they came across that had even a hint that it could be magical as they tried to find anyone who could track down Caleb. Neither one had elaborated on what had happened at breakfast, with Nott catching up to Beau as she had been storming down the street away from their hall in some random direction. The two women had had no luck since then of finding anyone with the talent required to pinpoint a location on Caleb through all the protective magic he wore around himself. By the time it was well past noon it had become clear that going about things the arcane way was simply not going to work so they had temporarily stopped in order to eat and regroup.

“Caleb’s too clever to let himself be found by just anyone. We need someone super smart to be able to try and out think him. Then we can find where he is.” Beau chewed thoughtfully on some bacon she had produced from one of her many pockets.

“So we’re gonna need a real nerd then, someone with absolutely no life other than studying….” She trailed off as her eyes landed on a tower due west of where they were, “That’s it!” Nott jumped, dropping her roll and pulling her dagger in one fluid motion before scanning the street.

“What!? What’s happening!?” 

“Nerds with no lives other than studying. We need to go to the Cobalt Soul and ask them for help. They’ve liked Caleb ever since he helped them with some ancient whatever they were trying to translate so they’ll definitely help us. Let’s go!” Without giving her companion a chance to protest Beau grabbed Nott’s arm and began essentially dragging her towards the archive. After living in the city for so long it was easy for the two of them to make their way to the Archive without running into any crowds or Crownsguard. Once they were there Beau barged right into the main building, scanning through the crowds and shelves to find anyone she recognized. After a few minutes of searching a familiar female elf appeared from somewhere towards the back of the room, approaching the two of them with a look of fond annoyance.

“Am I correct in assuming you barged in here with an unauthorized guest for a reason?” 

“Listen I’ll take the lecture or whatever later but right now we need your help.” Dairon nodded with a slight roll of her eyes and led Beau and Nott off to a secluded alcove used for private study. The three of them received more than a few curious glances from the monks who were going about their business but none of them approached the trio, whether because of Dairon’s presence or the aura of intensity surrounding the other two women, and within minutes they were inside Dairon’s now locked office. The room was sparse, with several bookshelves and cabinets lining the walls as the only indication the room was being used by anyone. In the middle of it sat a finely crafted and polished wooden desk with papers and maps strewn across it.

“So what is it that’s gotten the two of you in such a state? It’s not common to see you so unnerved Beau.”

“We need to find our teammate Caleb, he’s in trouble.”

“The rather quiet man you normally accompany here, correct? What sort of trouble could he have possibly found himself in that warrants this kind of reaction?” Nott and Beau both fell silent at the question, exchanging a hesitant look. Neither had really thought about how exactly they were going to explain themselves to the monks without the possibility of getting Caleb in serious trouble, “Come now Beau, you should know by now that anything you tell me will stay with me and me alone.”

“......We think he wants to become a lich. He found some kind of weird spellbook that has a ritual for becoming something kinda like a lich. We didn’t really get a lot of details out of him before he took off.”

“But he’s not a bad person! Caleb just wants to help, even is he is going about it the wrong way!” Dairon regarded the two of them coolly, her blank face betraying nothing of what she was thinking, before standing and moving to a cabinet located along the back wall of the room. She produced a set of keys and a small blade before turning her back to Beau and Nott, obscuring their view of what she was doing. There was a small shift in the elf’s shoulders, a rattle of keys and a quiet unlocking sound before the doors to the cabinet opened. Inside were dozens of books with worn leather bindings and slightly tattered pages. They seemed ancient and often used, though the spines and covers betrayed nothing of what they contained.

Dairon rummaged through the cabinet, shifting books back and forth as the other two watched in confusion and curiosity. Neither was sure of exactly what she was looking for, or how it would help them, but at this point they were willing to try anything to find Caleb first. They knew that their other three team members were kind and gentle but experience had taught also taught them that Fjord and Yasha especially were fierce protectors of their friends. Caleb may have still been a part of the Mighty Nein but at the moment he was someone who had put Jester, as well as the rest of the world, at risk. If they thought the only way to protect their loved ones was by hurting him then there wouldn’t be much of anything that could stop them.  Finally Dairon found the tome she was looking for among the stacks and closed the cabinet securely before walking back to her desk and placing the book on its surface. The book was bound in reddish brown leather that was starting to peel at the corners, with yellowing pages and a missing clasp of some kind meant to keep it shut. 

“This is the research journal of Arisira Ildras, a human necromancer of substantial power and influence in the arcane world in ancient times. She was conducting experiments into prolonging life long beyond its normal course and during her studies she joined forces with a colleague of hers, Sylthana Mithesir.”

“That’s who wrote the spellbook Caleb’s using!” Dairon nodded and opened the journal in front of her, allowing Beau and Nott a look at the text inside. Despite the weathered outer appearance of the journal the pages and ink inside were pristine, as if they had only been written in the last few days. 

“I thought as much. The two of them are spoken about in legends detailing their tireless efforts to prolong not only their own lives but also advance arcane research to near divine levels of power. In the end they were never quite able to succeed in their goals of achieving immortality; or at least that’s what’s public knowledge. It seems that in their research they stumbled across how to infuse their mortal bodies with so much arcane energy that they would effectively become energy itself. According to Arisira’s journal she wanted to destroy their research and never use what they had learned because of the potential risks to not only themselves but the rest of world too. Sylthana however went behind her colleagues back and performed the ritual, losing her mind and her physical form in the process.” 

“But Caleb said he could control it! He said that he wouldn’t lose himself!” Nott’s hands were shaking where she had half pulled herself onto the table in her desperation to see the notes Dairon was showing them, “He promised it would be safe for him!”

“That’s because Sylthana was fully convinced it would work and that she could overcome the madness. When Arisira learned what her partner had done she tried to burn their research but it would seem that Sylthana had already thought of that first and managed to somehow make the books completely invulnerable to any kind of harm. So Arisira did what she thought was best and hid the books in two separate locations she thought were safe, although clearly she was at least half mistaken.”

“What does this mean? Why tell us all this?” Beau was staring intently at the journal, like she wanted nothing more than to tear it out of the other monk’s hands and read it until her eyes bled. 

“Because you need to know exactly what you could be going against. If your friend manages to go through with this ritual he will lose himself and you won’t be able to ever get him back,” A choked, half-sob escaped Nott at that as she slumped back into her chair. The goblin pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face in them, her small shoulders shaking, “There is however one requirement to the ritual that will work in your favor. It can only be done under a full moon, the closest of which is less than two weeks away. So if you can manage to find Caleb before then you may be able to stop him.” Beau nodded, her eyes nearly blazing as she continued to stare at the book and she opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Nott suddenly jumping back up in her seat.

“Caleb!? Caleb listen you have to stop this, it’s not going to work. The book is all lies, please you have to listen to me. It’s wrong!” Nott was frantically looking around the room like Caleb would simply step out of the shadows and apologize for all this insanity. 

“Nott? What’s going on? Why did you suddenly start shouting like that?” Nott didn’t even look at Beau as she answered, still scanning the room desperately.

“It was Caleb! He said that he and Jester are safe and that he’s sorry but that he’s still going to go through with it. He told me to not try to stop him,” She suddenly fell back into her seat like a puppet whose strings had been cut, “He said he was doing this for us.” Beau clenched her fists so hard she could feel the bones straining before looking back up at Dairon.

“We need to find him before the full moon, whatever it takes. I’ll go through every fucking book in this place if I have to but we’re going to find that idiot and stop him before he hurts himself.” A half smile formed on Dairon’s face as she looked at her pupil and she slid the journal over to Beau.

“Your first step is looking through that then. And once you’re done we go over everything you know about your friend and figure out where he would’ve gone. We can start whenever you’re ready.” Nott and Beau locked eyes, mirrored grim determination staring back at them.

“We start now.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry about the sudden disappearance for the last weekish. It's been a rough few days between work and both my sister and my partner being officially back at college now, which kinda prompted a small mental health crisis. And to top it all off the entirety of everything I had prepared for this fic got spontaneously deleted. Luckily I still have my outline so I should hopefully be able to replace what I lost relatively quickly but this means that updates are going to be a lot less frequent while I try to figure this all out. I promise I will finish this story if I have to force myself to because I fell in love with the idea as soon as I thought of it so please don't worry about that.  
> Whew.... with all that out of the way here's the latest chapter! Please enjoy!

Jester wasn’t sure how long exactly had passed since Caleb had brought her to the workshop but she knew it had to have been at least a few days from the aches in her wrists and the mansion spell Caleb cast like clockwork to give them both a place to eat and sleep. He never allowed her to take her shackles off, probably afraid that she would use her magic or strength to overpower him, but he had been allowing Jester more small freedoms each time he summoned their mansion. She was allowed to roam as she pleased through the mansion and each time there were more and more rooms that were obviously designed to appeal specifically to her. The only restriction given to her was in the form of the silver thread laid across the threshold of the mansion’s door to alert Caleb if she tried to leave without him knowing.

The cycle of waking up to eat a silent meal with Caleb, following him back onto the material plane so he could continue work on his spell for hours on end before returning to the mansion for another silent meal before sleeping was becoming frighteningly routine to Jester in such a short period of time. She would continually pray to the Traveller throughout the long hours of Caleb’s quiet work; praying for her her safety and Caleb’s, for their friends to show up and save the both of them, for her to be smart enough to be able to pick the lock on her manacles, for anything to happen to relieve the utter boredom that was settling over her from the monotony of the routine they had formed. Despite her prayers though she never received any answer, not even the feeling of warm amusement and laughter that showed that the Traveller had heard her. The night that Caleb cast the mansion for the fifth time Jester decided she had had enough of all this.

“Caleb?” Caleb looked up from where he had been studying the spellbook, blinking like he wasn’t sure she had actually spoken to him.

“Hm? What is it?”

“I heard you sending a message to Nott the other day. You told her you were doing this for all of us, did you really mean that?” Slowly Caleb lowered the book to fully look at her, or more accurately somewhere roughly in her direction. Jester had noticed that he hadn’t looked her in the eyes once since this had all begun. It made her want to hug him and punch him all at the same time.

“Ja I…. I did. I don’t particularly enjoy the resentment of our friends but it is a necessary evil to facilitate a greater good. Just think about all the things I could make right if I were able to go back,” The wizard gave Jester a small, fragile smile as he came as close to looking directly at her as he had gotten the last few days, “I could stop that lord from putting a price on your head or I could prevent the shipwreck that cost Fjord his mentor. I could fix Beau’s family and bring Mollymauk back to us. Everything we’ve ever wanted to go back and change to make the world right would be possible for me. I could even save Astrid and ‘Wulf, before any of us ever got sucked into the hell that Trent put us through. I’d be fixing the things the world got wrong, don’t you get it?” Jester felt the urge to cry at each earnest, hopeful word that came from Caleb’s mouth and she shook her head as both a way to clear the mistiness in her eyes and in answer to his question.

“No I don’t. All that bad stuff that happened to us really, really sucked but it kinda made us who we are. I mean, I’ve learned a bunch of really cool stuff from you guys and you’re all my family now. If we took away all the bad things that brought us together we wouldn’t be us anymore.” The words seemed to hit Caleb hard and he snapped the book shut, his eyes dropping back to the table again. The unsteady smile fell from his mouth and was replaced by a grim line as he stood from his seat.

“I’m sorry you don’t understand then, but you will. I promise everything will be better once I do this. If it truly bothers you that much then I give you my word that once this is all over we’ll all be truly happy. And to me that’s well worth the price I’m paying.” His footsteps echoed sharply throughout the room as he stormed out, ignoring Jester calling after him. By the time she had made it to the door to follow him Caleb had completely vanished into one of the many rooms of the mansion, most likely behind a locked door so he couldn’t be followed. Jester sighed as she set off to wander the halls, not ready to return to her room yet. It appeared that Caleb hadn’t made any major changes to mansion’s layout like he had the past couple of times so even aimless wandering proved to be boring as Jester simply passed by things she had already explored. Eventually she gave up on her endeavor of finding something exciting to do and began the journey back to her room for the night. She stopped dead in her tracks as she passed through the foyer containing the entryway to the mansion though, her eyes catching on a detail so small she was amazed she had seen it at all. The silver thread Caleb normally laid on the threshold wasn’t there.

Almost unconsciously Jester took a step towards the door, her muscles trembling with the desire to run; to get away, to find her friends and bring them back here to stop Caleb before he got himself killed. The slight jangling of the chains around her wrists brought her back to her senses and she gazed appraisingly down at the manacles around her wrists. She’d never make it far without her magic but if she could somehow manage to get them off… With one last look at the threshold of the door Jester made her way back to her room, deliberately making as much noise as she could as she did so. She let her footsteps ring loudly through the hallways and hummed and sang to herself until she was fully in her room. As soon as she heard the quiet click of the lock on her door Jester knelt down and began to pray to the Traveller.

“I know that you’ve been ignoring me or not hearing me the last few days, which it’s totally not cool if you are ignoring me by the way, but I really, really need your help here. Caleb’s doing something super stupid and I need to stop him but I don’t have any of your magic. So if you could, pretty please, help me unlock these manacles so I can get all my magic back that would be amazing!” Jester let her voice drop quieter as she closed her eyes, “I’m really worried that something bad’s going to happen and this might be my once chance to stop it.” She let the silence fill the room, waiting for any sort of an answer, but nothing came to her. WIth frustration and anger welling in her chest Jester opened her eyes, only to find herself staring at a few bobby pins laid out on the floor in front of her. They were haphazard, like they had been dropped there or knocked over, but just the sight of them was enough to make Jester nearly burst with happiness. Beaming she snatched them off the carpet and hurried over to her bed, throwing the blanket over herself to hide her actions in case Caleb decided to come check on her.

It took Jester far longer than she would have liked to finally manage to work one of the pins into the lock and even longer to get it to twist in a way that didn’t immediately snap the pin in half but after what seemed like an eternity the manacles fell open from around her wrists and onto the bed. The ache in her wrists returned full force and she took a moment to rub at each of them in an attempt to relieve it as she figured out what her next step would be. Now that she had access to her magic again she had quite a few options for how to get out without being spotted but beyond that she wasn’t sure what to do. The brief time she and Caleb had been outside she hadn’t seen anything resembling a landmark or other identifying feature she could use to tell the others where she was, and she certainly hadn’t seen anything that had indicated to her if she near any towns or cities she could temporarily disappear into. Eventually she came to the conclusion that her best chance was to disappear into the forests she had briefly seen behind the manor and follow whatever trail she could find to the nearest city. From there she’d be able to figure things out on her own.

With a small nod to herself Jester silently slipped out of her bed and gathered her things, leaving behind her shield and anything else that would make enough noise to give her away. Then she turned to the bed and did her best at arranging her remaining belongings and some pillows into a relatively convincingly tiefling shaped mass on the bed before throwing the blanket over it. When she was confident in her work Jester stepped back out into the hallway, muttering another small prayer to the Traveller as she did, and began to make her way to the foyer once again. She moved slowly to lessen even the small amount of noise she was making through her spell, making sure to glance behind her every so often to make sure there was nothing following her. Eventually she found herself just outside the foyer again and after taking a breath to stabilize her nerves, as well as taking the opportunity to check around her one more time, Jester darted forward and out of the door to the mansion. 

She emerged into the darkened workshop and immediately made her way to the door leading out of it, not bothering with being stealthy now that she and Caleb were technically on two different planes of existence. A full sprint let her quickly make her way down the hallway lined with doors leading to various torture rooms and out into the full expanse of the manor. WIthout so much as a glance back Jester bolted to the front doors of the manor, only to stop ten feet away from them. Barely visible in the lowlight were two small symbols at the base of each of the doors. Jester had just knelt down to inspect them and figure out how to disarm them when she heard noise coming from behind the door leading to the basement. Panic seized at her for a moment and Jester stood, taking off up a set of stairs to the right of the front doors. She rounded a corner when she reached the top and continued running down the hallway until she reached a room that was far enough from the landing of the stairs that she’d have enough time to get hidden. 

Trying her best to be quiet Jester closed and locked the door behind her, grabbing a chair away from what looked to be a desk and sticking it underneath the door handle. Jester had to take a moment to calm her breathing and her mind before she could think about what she could even do now. Caleb had clearly figured out she had escaped and was chasing her throughout the manor but she was sure that he hadn’t been able to see where she went. Unfortunately she knew it was only a matter of time before he was able to find her now that she had essentially trapped herself inside the building. Suddenly an idea came to Jester through her frantic thoughts, she didn’t have to leave the manor to tell the others where they were. Making sure the chair was firmly stuck under the doorknob one last time Jester made her way to the corner of the room and knelt down, folding her hands.

First she let her thoughts wander to Fjord, who she knew had to be worried sick. He had always been one of their protectors and wouldn’t stand for any of them being put in unnecessary danger. For all that she teased him about being a stick in the mud Jester had grown to care for the half-orc’s protective nature and had even learned to enjoy having someone so reliable at her back. A smile crept across her face as memories of all the times he had stepped in to help her flitted through her mind and she began to speak.

“Fjord, we’re at some guy’s house; Trent something. We killed him in Xhorhas and Caleb knew him. You need to get here soon, please hurry!” Jester felt the magic disappear from her and fade into the night air, only having to wait a few heartbeats for Fjord’s answer.

“ _ Jester!? Where exactly are you!? Are you ok!? Come on Jester I need some more detail so we can come an’ find you! Just tell- _ ” His voice cut off after that and Jester found herself giggling at him, even as she felt something twisting in her stomach at the clear worry in his voice. Normally it was him reminding her to watch her words when using Sending to talk to someone. After allowing herself that brief moment of happiness Jester sobered up again, needing to send one more message. 

This time she focused her mind on Nott, who was probably even more worried than Fjord. She and the small goblin had only become even better friends over the last year and a half of their adventures and the two of them had become nearly inseparable. Not as inseparable as Nott and Caleb though, who would always share a bond that the rest of their friends couldn’t even come close to touching. Jester couldn’t even imagine how hard this must be on Nott with her best friend having been kidnapped by the man she considered like a son.

“I don’t know if you’re with Fjord but Caleb and I are at some Trent guy’s manor in the middle of nowhere. Caleb knows him-” This time she felt her own words cut off as the magic disappeared from her again and she took the ensuing seconds of silence to listen for any sign that Caleb was close. Focusing her hearing she could hear footsteps making their way hurriedly down the hallway, soon followed by clearly audible doors slamming shut closer and closer to her.

“ _ You’re at his house!? Are you ok!? Is Caleb ok!? Jester you need to try to talk sense into Caleb, what he’s doing is dangerous! _ ” The sheer fear and worry in Nott’s voice was more intense than Jester had expected and it took the breath out of her. She didn’t understand how Caleb couldn’t see that what he was doing was terrifying the people who considered him family. The footsteps were closer now, virtually right outside the room she was hiding in, so Jester stood and faced the door. The doorknob rattled for a moment before stopping and Jester could hear Caleb reciting something outside the room. A loud, echoing knocking sound came from the door and it swung open, pushing the easily out of the way. Caleb stood outside the door looking winded and scared as he locked eyes with Jester.

“You were able to tell them where we are,” It wasn’t phrased a question but Jester nodded anyway, her heart breaking at the way Caleb’s shoulders slumped when she said that, “Why? Why do you not understand that I’m trying to help us? I just want things to be good again.”

“We can help you do that Caleb, you don’t need to use some weird, scary magic stuff. Just let us help you.” He shook his head and looked back up at her, his eyes hard.

“I’m sorry Jester.” With that he muttered the same arcane word he had in their fight a few days ago and Jester felt all the strength in her body drain away, falling to the floor in a heap. She could hear Caleb muttering a new incantation as she watched his boots make her way towards her. When he finished she had only a second to process that he had stopped before the world went dark.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry about the super long absence again. I do have good news though and it's that instead of attempting my traditional nanowrimo challenge I've given myself the challenge of finishing this fic and restarting my uploads again. So I can't make any promises for a regular upload schedule but I will be steadily chipping away at it over the course of the month!

Waking up to Nott yelling wasn’t exactly the ideal way to be woken up in the middle of the night and Beau had to resist the urge to just get up and throw the goblin out of the room they were sharing at the Archive. She opened her mouth to tell Nott off just as the rogue jumped onto her bed with a frantic look on her face and grabbed two handfuls of the front of Beau’s shirt.

“I know where Caleb and Jester are! Jester just sent me a message and told me where they are!” That snapped Beau to her senses and she sat fully upright, nearly knocking Nott off the bed in the process.

“Then why the hell are we still here?” She grabbed Nott and jumped out of bed, nearly running into the door in her haste to leave the room and get to Dairon. It was still late in the night so there were only a couple of monks wandering about the Archive as guards, all of whom glared viciously at the pair as they passed although it didn’t seem to bother the two of them as they all but sprinted to the expositor’s office. Beau finally released Nott when they reached the door and banged twice on in as a way of knocking before just barging in. Dairon was still sitting at her desk looking over some papers and she fixed the two of them with a heavily annoyed glare as they entered the office, “Jester told us where they are!” That seemed to catch the elf’s attention and with a deep sigh she moved the papers off of her desk to pull out the map they had been working off of for the last six days. 

“Well let’s have it then, where are they?” Beau looked expectantly at Nott, who climbed onto a chair to study the map in greater detail.

“She told me they were at Trent Ikithon’s manor.” Beau felt more than heard the growl she released at the man’s name. She didn’t know how she couldn’t have seen it coming that he was somehow involved in all this. Apparently he was able to help ruin Caleb’s life even beyond the grave.

“Of fucking course. Did she say where it is?” Nott shook her head, still studying the map intently as if looking for some kind of arrow pointing to the location.

“No that’s all I was able to get, the spell cut her off before I could hear more.” Beau scowled and looked to Dairon.

“Any idea where this place is? He was a bigshot with the Cerberus Assembly and the Empire so you guys have to have some kind of record on the guy.” Dairon paused to think, looking thoughtfully at the map as well before pointing to an area outside of Rexxentrum marked as Havenpath Road. 

“As far as I’ve heard he lived outside of the capital in this general area. I don’t know anything specific from memory but I’m sure we’d have the location listed somewhere in our records The main problem this presents however is travel and timing,” she opened one of the drawers of her desk to pull out few pieces of paper that seemed to be an official report of some kind and quickly scan them, “It appears that the other members of your group left the city five days ago travelling roughly in that direction. Now it takes a little over a week just to get ot the city, assuming they didn’t stop for an extended period of time in any towns along the way, and at best they’d need another couple of days to search the Havenpath Road for the manor. With only about a week left until the full moon you wouldn’t even have the time to make it to Rexxentrum, however it’s likely your friends could make it just in time if they were lucky.”

“Dammit, dammit!” Nott’s claws dug into the edge of the desk and Beau placed a hand on her shoulder, still scowling.

“Is there some kind of magic… thing that would help us? Surely this Trent guy had arcane ways of getting to places if he was so powerful. Like a teleportation circle or something like that?”

“It’s possible but if he did it would be heavily warded against unauthorized travel. You would likely need permission from the man himself to enter his manor that way, which you all assured wouldn’t be happening without a bit of necromancy. And from what I know about the man it’s also very likely his home itself is spelled against all kinds of magic that would prevent just anyone from getting inside.” 

“What about-?”

“Listen to what I’m telling you Beauregard,” Dairon interrupted crossly, “Teleporting directly to the house is impossible. At best you would simply end up somewhere else and at worst the attempt to cross would kill you. Find another solution.” Beau’s hands were shaking like she was using all her willpower to restrain herself from reaching out and tearing the map in front of her to shreds as her eyes blazed with cold fury. They had learned where Caleb and Jester were, had come so close to being able to get them only to be stopped by something as mundane as the distance between their locations.

“What about travelling to Rexxentrum? There are teleportation circles there right?” Nott asked, her voice as quiet and restrained as Beau’s anger.

“You could try but all the circles would be in either government buildings or the Soltryce Academy, which leads to the same issue as teleporting directly to the house. Without someone on the inside already you won’t have access.”

“The Cobalt Soul has an in at the Hall of Erudition though,” Beau said, looking hopefully at Dairon, “Enough of one to get us in at least right?”

“Well yes but-”

“So get us in! We’ll just sneak to the teleportation circle from there and get to Rexxentrum on our own.” Dairon sighed again and rubbed the bridge of her nose, clearly far too tired to deal with Beau’s impulsiveness at the moment.

“And how would you activate it? Neither of you possess that kind of knowledge as far as I know and the one in your group who does is currently holed up attempting to become a lich.” Beau wanted to snap back that they would figure it out but she knew that they had hit yet another roadblock. With only limited arcane talent on their side they’d need to find a powerful caster willing to break the rules for them, which would be hard to come by since they were considering going against the Soltryce Academy and the Empire. Few people were willing to go so far so anyone they didn’t know and money could only buy so much loyalty.

“What if I knew someone who could activate it for us?” Beau and Dairon both seemed caught off guard by Nott’s question at the rogue settled herself onto the chair she had been standing on. She was avoiding looking at either of them directly, instead appearing fascinated by the wood grain on the side of the desk, “If I knew someone who could activate the teleportation circle for us once we got into this Hall place then would you be willing to get us in?” Dairon considered the question for a few moments before slowly nodding.

“That would be doable, but not until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. Would that be acceptable for the two of you?” Beau had no clue who Nott would know of that would be willing to help them that much but she wasn’t going to pass up the chance to get into the Hall of Erudition so she nodded her consent, “Very well. I’ll contact them in the morning and arrange it. Now go and get some rest, I have a feeling you’re going to need it.” The dismissal was clear so Beau and Nott each offered quiet thanks before making their way back to their shared room, neither one daring to speak where the other monks could overhear them. Once they were safely behind a closed door again though Beau rounded on Nott.

“Since when do we know someone in the city strong enough to use a teleportation circle and stupid enough to possibly go against the Empire’s rules to do it?” Nott shrugged noncommittally as she pulled herself back into her bed tiredly.

“They’re not in the city but I know how to get into contact with them. But it’s a last ditch plan, got it? Let’s see if the people at the Hall will help us before we resort to this.” Beau was still clueless about what her friend could be planning but at this point she was willing to try anything that would lead them to Caleb and Jester. She climbed into her own bed, struggling to get comfortable with anxious energy pulsing under her skin at the thought of whatever would happen tomorrow. From the shuffling happening on Nott’s bed neither of them were feeling up to sleeping at the moment but neither of them spoke, each too caught up in their own thoughts. Minutes of silence eventually slipped into occasional light dozing until morning finally came to the Archive and a monk was sent to get them for breakfast.

The two of them took their time with their meal before they returned to their room to wait out the hours anxiously, neither one quite ready to face what they were going to have to try to do. After what felt like an eternity Dairon came to fetch them and escort them to the Hall of Erudition. The walk there was punctuated mostly by small warnings from Dairon to be careful as they were their under the Cobalt Soul’s name and were expected to keep up the reputation the monastic order had managed to build with the Empire. All too soon Dairon was leaving them at the entrance to the Zauber Spire. 

“Ready?” Beau asked, glaring slightly at the strange looks they were getting from the students wandering around the campus.

“No. Let’s go.” Nott started forward confidently, the way her hand kept straying towards where she kept her flask being the only sign of any distress coming from her. She hadn’t touched her alcohol since Caleb had disappeared and it seemed to be having its effect on her. The two of them entered the doors at the base of the spire and were met with a relatively normal looking lobby with a desk at one end and a few doors leading deeper into the tower scattered about. They made their way towards the desk that was being manned by a young female half-elf who looked them over as they approached.

“You must be the two from the Cobalt Soul. You superior, Expositor Dairon, mentioned that you were here to seek quick passage to Rexxentrum, is this correct?” Beau stepped forward, trying to make herself look more official than she felt as she addressed the half-elf.

“That’s right. There’s a situation that requires our immediate attention within the city and we need a way to get there quickly. We thought that you might be willing to simply allow us transport.” A flash of a frown appeared on the woman’s face before being replaced once again by the cool mask of indifference.

“Unfortunately access to our teleportation circles is limited to Academy personnel, students and those with the appropriate, authorized paperwork. If you’re interested in securing that paperwork then I’d be more than happy to provide it to you but there’s nothing I can do for you past there.” Beau had to resist the urge to whack her staff across the half-elf’s perfectly calm face, instead clenching her first where it couldn’t be seen.

“Listen I understand there’s some kind of bureaucracy going on here and I’d be more than happy to help that keep happening-”

“I don’t know what you think you’re implying but-”

“I need you get a message to two mages of the Cerberus Assembly for me!” Beau and the half-elf both froze mid-argument and looked down at Nott, who was doing her best to be seen past the high edge of the desk.

“I’m sorry what?” Nott shifted awkwardly from foot to foot but looked the half-elf woman directly in the eyes.

“We need you to pass a message along to a couple of mages concerning our business here. Tell them we have information they want about someone they’ve been searching for for a very long time and that if they come to meet us we’ll tell them what we know. Their names are Astrid and Eodwulf, they studied here under Trent Ikithon. Tell them it has to do with Caleb Widogast and they’ll come.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my plan to finish this during Nanowrimo didn't exactly work out but I did manage to put a good dent in the chapters I had left. I can't promise that I'll have this all finished up by the end of the year because of holiday stuff coming up soon but I can say that I'm nearly done with this and I'm gonna do my best to make the last push and actually finish this!

Fjord had been on the verge of snapping ever since he had gotten Jester’s message the night before. They had just made it to the town where Cree was, Novaroza, and had turned in for the night at the one inn in town when Jester’s voice had suddenly rung out through his head to ruin any chance he had of sleeping that night. After waking Caduceus and Yasha it had been decided that they would leave set out first thing in the morning to find Cree and hopefully use her abilities to track down where this house could be and, if that couldn’t be done by the time night rolled around, that they would leave the following morning to continue on the Rexxentrum to find someone who could point them in the direction of Trent Ikithon’s house. It was safe to assume that the wizard had had connections there considering he had told Yasha to find him there before they had realized what a truly despicable person he was and had taken care of him on the Xhorhasian border.

He didn’t sleep much that night despite the surprising comfort of the small inn, instead spending his time staring at the ceiling and wishing his magic was more like Jester’s so he could send her a message to see if she was alright, or even to simply give her someone to talk to. She was a social creature and Caleb certainly wasn’t, especially not when his mind was focused on something, so he knew that Jester had to have been feeling incredibly alone this whole time. Eventually the first rays of morning began to shine through the window and almost directly into Fjord’s eyes so he forced himself out of bed and down into the tavern below. He was unsurprised to see Yasha sitting at a table in the corner by herself, the only person currently in the room other than the bartender. 

“G’morning,” He said as he sat down across from her, receiving a slight nod back from his companion, “I take it you didn’t sleep much last night either?”

“Tried to but it was hard. We know where Jester is but we don’t. It’s frustrating.” Fjord sullenly nodded his agreement as a barmaid came out of the kitchen and hurried her way over to the table, clearly shocked at seeing someone up this early in the morning.

“O-oh I hope you weren’t waiting long. Can I get something for you?” She was clearly nervous about helping them, most likely due to the sour looks on both of their faces being mistaken as displeasure at her, so Fjord did his best to give her a sleepy but genuine smile.

“Somethin’ to eat would be great, anythin’s fine so long as it’s hot. I’ll skip a drink for now though. Yasha?” The aasimar didn’t even look his way as Fjord spoke to her, instead continuing her staring out the window.

“Just an ale, biggest one you’ve got.” 

“Yes of course! That’ll be right up!” The girl scurried back into the kitchen and Fjord joined Yasha in her staring until their food and drink was brought out. The food wasn’t anything spectacular but it was enough for him to at least pick at in an attempt to eat and Yasha seemed content with just her drink. After a short time Caduceus eventually joined the two of them, looking drowsy but ready for whatever the day would bring. He took his place at their table and the three of them finished their meal in silence before thanking the innkeeper and setting out to find Cree. It wasn’t hard to find the tabaxi as the whole town consisted of mainly just one street with buildings lining it three or four rows back. According to one particularly helpful, and now well paid, shopkeeper she had gone into the woods to the northeast two days before but hadn’t come back.

“Do we go after her?” Fjord hesitated as he struggled to come up with what he thought would be the correct answer. She could be there best lead to finding out exactly where Jester and Caleb were but they didn’t have the time to be looking for someone who was possibly lost in the expansive woods surrounding the town. There was a gnawing feeling in his stomach that something was most likely wrong though as he knew that Cree wouldn’t have just disappeared without a reason.

“She could be our best bet at getting an exact location. Besides she might be in trouble an’ we can’t just leave her if she is. We stick to the path as much as possible though an’ if we haveta get outta there we do. Findin’ Jester is most important right now.” With that the three of them set out into the woods to hunt down their lost ally. They followed the well trod path deeper into the woods for close to two hours, only occasionally breaking through the noises of the forest to make observations about where they were going. After another hour of trekking the group reached a clearing that was suspiciously devoid of any movement or noise.

“Well that definitely isn’t normal,” Fjord nodded his agreement to Caduceus as they walked a few steps into the clearing. Other than the unnatural stillness to the area nothing seemed to be amiss until they reached the exact center of the clearing. As soon as they did the world seemed to fall away around them, instead being replaced by a large house similar to the one they had seen in the Labenda Swamp.

“One of the Gentleman’s safehouses. Must be where Cree disappeared to.”

“But why wouldn’t she come back? She works for him so she must know how to get back.” Fjord called his falchion to his hand as he stepped to the front of the party.

“Be careful, we don’ know what could be in there,” He carefully pushed the front door open and stepped inside, only to be met with the sight of Cree standing perfectly still in the middle of the empty safehouse. A scan of the room showed it to be entirely empty, even of whatever valuables or people had been hidden there, with the only odd occurrence being what appeared to be a glyph of some kind under the tabaxi’s feet. Fjord, Clay and Yasha all spread throughout the room, steering clear of Cree and the section of floor she was standing on. When they had entirely flanked her Fjord carefully took a couple of steps in her direction, “Cree?” She showed no signs of having heard him, continuing to stare into empty space with wide eyes and shaking hands. Whatever it was that she was seeing must have been beyond terrifying. Seeing that attempting to call her attention back to them wasn’t having any sort of effect Fjord nodded at his teammates before stepping into Cree’s space and laying a hand on her shoulder.

Almost immediately darkness filled his vision and a crushing silence drowned out Yasha’s voice telling him to stop before he could fully register what she meant. It was like he was trapped back in his dreams of his patron, unseeing and unable to move as he waited for whatever was coming until finally a light appeared at the edges of his vision. It filled the space around him and brought where he was into full focus. He was standing in a large, ornately decorated room that he didn’t recognize. A low fire burned in a hearth to his left and as he moved towards it he could feel the bizarrely intense heat it was emitting. As he looked around he noticed the distinct lack of doors or windows in the room, prompting a fleeting thought of how he had managed to get in there in the first place. 

It felt like he had been staring into the flames for hours and his eyes started to itch and burn from the heat of the flames when he suddenly felt the presence of another person in the room with him. Spinning around he nearly dropped to his knees as he saw Jester lounging in a plush chair across the room from him, her legs kicked up over the side of the chair and her face hidden in a book.

“Why’re you taking so long?” Fjord blinked in confusion at her as she spoke, still not taking her eyes off the book in front of her.

“W-what do you mean? We’re comin’ for you as fast as we can.”

“Then why are you here instead of finding me? Aren’t you worried?” Something unpleasant twisted in Fjord’s gut as her words fell over him and he tried in vain to find an answer that would explain what he was doing. He tried to force out any explanation he could about how they were trying to find her by helping an ally, that in order to save her they had to make this stop but the words wouldn’t come to his lips, “Caleb’s very dangerous right now, who knows what could happen. So why are you looking for Cree instead of me?”

“We…. we hadta find a lead Jester, we couldn’t just track you down with nothin’. It woulda been impossible-”

“Is that why you split up with Beau and Nott? So they wouldn’t get in the way? They’re very smart, you know, they could’ve helped,” She finally took her attention off the book in front of her and turned her gaze to Fjord. Her eyes were like ice as they locked with his and Fjord swore he felt his blood freezing in his veins, “But you didn’t let them, you drove them away. What if you’re too late? Doesn’t that bother you?”

“Of course it does! I’m tryin’ to find you Jester, I swear,” as he spoke Fjord could feel his drawling accent slipping, only to replaced by his true voice, “I won’t let you get hurt so you have to trust that I’m doing everything I can to find you. That’s why we’re here to find Cree, so we can track you using her magic. I swear on my life I’m going to find you before Caleb has a chance to hurt you, you just need to have a little faith in me. It’s all going to be ok!” She didn’t respond, instead continuing to simply stare at him with her ice cold eyes. The fire at his back seemed to grow warmer and warmer but he couldn’t pull his attention away from Jester, even as it felt like his skin was beginning to burn. He felt like he was being torn in two seperate directions between the flames at his back and the frozen stare of Jester to his front, his mind starting to fray as he tried to figure out which sensation to fight.

And then suddenly it was gone and he was standing in front of Cree again, Yasha’s arm supporting him as Caduceus was holding Cree up. He felt wetness on his face and shakily brought his hands up to wipe it away only to discover that there were tears pouring out of his eyes. 

“W-what happened?” His voice sounded weak and hoarse even to his ears and he was suddenly grateful for Yasha’s arm supporting him as he felt exhausted from the energy it took to speak. Cree looked even worse than him, slumped almost entirely to the floor and breathing shallowly.

“You were trapped in some kind of illusion. Clay dispelled it.” Fjord gave the firbolg a tired smile in thanks and managed to remove Yasha’s arm from him so he could sit on the floor. His tears seemed to have stopped but his face was still uncomfortably wet even as he tried to scrub the residue away, every movement making his back twinge in pain from phantom burns. Caduceus lowered Cree to the floor as well as she began to come back to her senses, blinking dazedly at the three of them.

“How did you all get here?” Her voice sounded even more broken than his had and as soon as she was done speaking she exploded into a coughing fit from the exertion. Fjord sluggishly managed to unhook his water skin and pass it to her, which she emptied completely within seconds. Cree panted for a few moments, attempting to catch her breath but managing to look slightly more aware of her surroundings now, “Did the Gentleman send you to find me?”

“We needed your help actually, something only your unique set of skills can give us.” When Fjord noticed the confusion on her face at Caduceus’ rather vague explanation he sighed softly.

“Jester’s missing, we were hopin’ you might be able to track her for us. Give us her location or at least somethin’ close to her.” Cree nodded, still looking exhausted as she leaned to one side.

“That I can do for you, provided you have the blood sample, but not now. I should be more up to the task tonight after I’ve rested.” It felt like a weight lifted from Fjord’s body as her agreement washed over him and he found breathing suddenly much easier.

“Of course, thank you.” 

“So how did you end up in that illusion in the first place? If this place belongs to your employer then shouldn’t you have known it was there?” Cree seemed to struggle for an answer for a moment, her face crinkled in concentration as she looked around the room.

“There was word from the village of a woman who had come through, asking too many questions and very interested in the area around the safehouse. They managed to pass along word to us and I was sent to investigate. When I got here and started asking around they said she had come out here for a few hours before leaving that night using some kind of magic. They described her as a Zemnian woman wearing a uniform in Empire colors, cold but polite enough and with a keen interest in whatever was out here. It sounded like…. Like someone I knew and I suppose I rushed out here without thinking to figure out what she wanted. I was reckless.” Fjord reached across the space between them and laid his hand on Cree’s shoulder as she frowned.

“We’re all prone to bein’ reckless every now an’ then. Don’ worry too much about it and just rest up. We can all head back to village tonight and see about findin’ Jester.” She flashed him a grateful smile before laying out on the floor, falling asleep almost as soon as she found a comfortable position.

“You should rest too, you look tired,” Yasha’s voice was firm as she pushed gently on Fjord’s shoulder to get him to lay down, “We’ll wake you both up later on.” He nodded as he felt his eyelids getting heavier and heavier, the thought that when he woke they would be that much closer to finding Jester enough to send him into the first good night’s sleep he had gotten since this madness had all started.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A reasonably well timed update to this story? Nah, can't be, that doesn't sound like me. Anyway all joking aside this was probably my favorite chapter of this whole fic to write so far simply because the two characters who get introduced in it. I'm sure you can all guess who they are but in the interests of keeping spoilers out of this note I'll elaborate more at the end. Enjoy!

It turned out that Nott’s master plan was much harder to put into practice than she thought it would be with the half-elf woman flat out refusing to help them yet again before kicking them out of the Hall. It took another day and a half for Dairon to manage to convince the headmaster to let the two women back in and this time they had gone in prepared to do whatever it took to get their message out, including coming with a decently sized purse of gold to help move the process along. After another hour of trying to convince the very same half-elf woman to send the message eventually she relented, now nearly fifty gold pieces richer. Beau and Nott were shown to what appeared to be an empty classroom to wait for the response from the two mages they were hoping to get in contact with.

“You know this is a long shot, right?” Nott shrugged, flipping the cap on flask open and closed as she stared intently at the door. She had sworn to herself she wouldn’t touch any of the liquor in it until she had her son back by her side but the motion was soothing to her.

“It’s our only shot right now and I’m willing to risk it. When me and Jester wrote to Astrid before they both seemed happy to see Caleb when they showed up to track us down, even if it was in their own unhealthy and slightly evil way. They all still care for each other and I know that if we explain that Caleb’s in trouble they’ll want to help him.” She had to be sure of that much, in order to justify doing this to herself. Otherwise she had cost them any time they may have had to get to Caleb before he could go through with the ritual. Several hours passed as they waited, the boredom broken by the two of them exploring the classroom to find anything they could to entertain themselves while they waited. And then finally the door to the chamber opened, revealing the half-elf woman whose name Nott was realizing they still hadn’t gotten. Beau jumped off the table she had been lounging on and approached her.

“What’s the big deal with making us wait like this? With all the magic you people have you’d think that travelling quickly would be easy for you.”

“And you would think someone seeking our help would know when to act grateful for any chances they get. Clearly I was mistaken,” A soft, Zemnian accented voice rang throughout the chamber as a blonde woman entered the room followed by a black haired man; both brushing past the half-elf like she was beneath them. Beau retreated back to Nott’s side as the door swung shut, leaving them alone with the two mages. They were both dressed in the same crimson and gold military uniforms Nott had seen them in last, though it appeared that Astrid had allowed her straw blonde hair to grow out long enough to be styled into a braid pulled up to the crown of her head. Eodwulf for his part had the same sharp smirk as the last time, as if he were perpetually amused by something no one else understood, “What a pity, you two were not the ones we were expecting to see. Where is Caleb?” Nott and Beau exchanged a look, never once relaxing their defensive stances despite the lack of aggression so far.

“That’s why we need to get to Rexxentrum, Caleb’s in trouble.”

“He’s also rather resourceful and more than capable of getting out of trouble without calling on our assistance,” Eodwulf’s tone was much warmer than Astrid’s but it rang hollow to Nott’s ears. She knew that they both had a soft spot for Caleb still but also that it didn’t extend to the rest of the Nein. They would have to tread carefully if they wanted to have any chance of convincing the two mages to help them.

“He’s gotten himself into some serious trouble this time, the magical kind of trouble,” Nott launched into an explanation of the argument that had happened over breakfast, leading to Caleb’s kidnapping of Jester and their disappearance from the guild hall. Astrid and Eodwulf looked utterly bored with all of it until she reached the part containing the information of what was going to happen to Caleb if he was able to go through with the ritual. It was hard to notice given the distance but Nott saw both their faces pale when they heard of what Caleb’s fate would be, “We got a message from Jester saying that they were at Trent Ikithon’s manor.” 

“Caleb would never go back to Master Ikithon’s manor if he could help it, he views everything that happened there as unpleasant,” It was even harder to pick up on than their reaction earlier had been but Nott could have sworn that Eodwulf had sounded sad as he spoke.

“Yeah well Jester wouldn’t lie so they’re definitely there. Now about why we called you here-”

“You wish us to teleport you to the manor so that you can stop Caleb before the rest of your little group gets to him,” Astrid interrupted, shifting slightly closer to Eodwulf so that their shoulders were brushing against each other, “I doubt that would be possible at the moment however. Caleb is many things but he’s no fool, he would have put countermeasures into place as soon as he knew his location was compromised. It’s likely that any attempts to teleport directly there would end with a substantial amount of pain for the spellcaster. The same can be assumed for anything within five miles of the manor as well. If there’s anything you should know about Caleb it’s that if he doesn’t wish to be found then it will be next to impossible. He did manage to elude us for over five years after all.” Nott frowned, thinking of the extreme paranoia Caleb had always insisted on whenever he could. Knowing what she did now it made perfect sense to her why he would want to avoid detection but seeing him go back to his mindset that the whole world was out to get him, even his own friends, was profoundly upsetting to her.

“Even if he doesn’t want to admit it Caleb needs our help, he needs your help. He told us about what it was like when you all were growing up under Trent’s teaching and what you all did to your parents; the way he broke when he heard his screaming from inside their house. You didn’t protect him back then but you can now, so just help us however you can.” 

“You dare-!” Eodwulf began to move towards them with arcane fire building in his green eyes, the shimmering outline of blade forming in his hand as Beau and Nott both prepared to defend themselves from whatever he was about to do. Before he could get more than two steps towards them however Astrid stepped in between them and grabbed Eodwulf’s hand, speaking to him in quiet Zemnian. Slowly the blade dissipated and the fire in his eyes dimmed to a faint glow before extinguishing completely as the two of them continued their conversation. When they were done Astrid turned to face the two of them again, still holding on to Eodwulf’s hand.

“Do not speak of things you couldn’t hope to understand. What we did we did because it was right and was necessary of us. If you dare to imply that we did nothing to protect Caleb again I won’t stand in the way, understood?” Nott and Beau both gave a nod before a realization crashed over Nott all at once. From the way Astrid had been talking they didn’t know about the way their memories had been manipulated to make them want to kill their parents. Caleb had never told them at any point since they had reappeared in his life a little over a year ago. Nott had to fight the urge to run over to the two of them and tell them everything, tell them that they had been manipulated like Caleb had but she knew she couldn’t. They would never believe her without any kind of proof and they didn’t have the time to try and force them to go to a cleric to get their minds cleared. It went against every instinct she had but Nott bit her tongue as she let Beau continue to do the talking.

“Listen, I’m bad at this shit. I shouldn’t have gone that far so I’m sorry but I wasn’t lying about how much Caleb needs our help. I know you all have to still care for each other even if you do think he ran away or betrayed you or some shit like that and I really doubt you want to see him end up worse than dead.” The two mages shared a look before retreating a few steps away from Nott and Beau, resuming their conversation in Zemnian from a safe distance. Seeing the chance Nott made her way over to Beau and turned her back to the other two, not giving them a chance to read her lips just in case as she dropped her voice to barely above a whisper.

“They don’t know about the fake memories,” Beau’s eyes widened as she glanced over Nott’s shoulder before letting out a quiet curse, “We can’t tell them now but we have to before they leave. They deserve to know, even if they don’t believe us at first.” The monk nodded, a mixture of sympathy and rage obvious on her face as she watched the two of them talk.

“Whether or not they help us we’ll tell them, they deserve that much at least.” Nott was about to voice her agreement when the two humans turned back to them, both looking like they had carefully erased all the emotion from their faces. For an instant the image of a blank faced Caleb in scarlet and gold robes flashed in Nott’s mind and she gripped the cap of her flask so hard it dug into her palm. Seeing these two people Caleb had considered part of his family for such a large part of his life made it abundantly clear how close he had come to the point of no return. 

“Despite the…. issues, we have with you and your infuriating group we’ve both decided to lend you our help in getting to Rexxentrum.”

“However,” Eodwulf started, his smug smirk reappearing on his face, “In return we will go with you to Master Ikithon’s manor and help you to put a stop to Caleb’s plans. If this is a problem then you’re free to attempt to find your own way there in the five days you have left.” Nott wanted to argue, wanted to keep these people away from Caleb and the recovery he had started to make before all this had happened, but she knew that they had been backed into a corner. Astrid and Eodwulf knew where Caleb was and she had no doubts that if they didn’t get an agreement then they would simply go by themselves to stop the wizard.

“Fine but we’re not out to hurt him. All we want to do is stop him before he hurts himself.”

“Well now that that’s settled shall we go?” Without giving the other two women a chance to answer Astrid held a hand up towards them and muttered under her breath. The world around the four of them warped and spun, fading into bright light and colors for a moment before solidifying once again revealing an ornate chamber with well cleaned stone walls covered in tapestries depicting scenes of great battles and masterful spellwork. Small lamps lit the room, something that was unneeded at the moment with the glowing circle of runes under their feet casting enough light to completely illuminate their surroundings. Nott’s head swam from the after effects of the sudden teleportation and she stumbled briefly before regaining her footing, much better off than Beau who looked like she was fighting the urge to be sick. 

“Welcome to the Soltryce Academy,” Eodwulf said brightly with a mocking bow towards the two of them, “Master Ikithon’s manor is a three day ride outside of the city so we leave at first light tomorrow morning. Wait here and we’ll send someone to make sure you get to a room you can use for the night. Do try not to wander within the Academy or cause trouble though, it’d be a shame to execute you so soon into our alliance.” With that he took Astrid’s arm and the two of them left the chamber, leaving Beau and Nott alone.

“I can’t fucking believe that worked,” Beau leaned against one of the walls, looking around the room curiously, “So this is where Caleb grew up, huh? Seems way too fancy for him.” Nott found herself nodding as she looked around the room too. It was strange knowing that they were now in one of the places Caleb had lived for so long but had tried his hardest to never have to think about again. She could only imagine what kind of turmoil he was going through being back at Ikithon’s manor. Using Beau’s distraction to her advantage Nott went over to one of the far corners of the room and pulled out her copper wire.

“Caleb?,” she whispered so as not to draw Beau’s attention, “Please just respond to this so I know you’re ok. It’s not too late to stop all this.” Nott felt the small surge of magic leave her as the message sent and within a few moments it returned with the reply.

“ _ I’m sorry schatz. _ ” Nott’s hands were shaking as she hastily stowed the wire back in one of her pockets just in time for the door to the chamber to open. A human teenager dressed in a less ornate version of the robes Astrid and Eodwulf had been wearing looked in on the two of them with confusion.

“You’re our two guests for the evening? I’m here to show you to your room.” The teen sounded vaguely nervous, probably worried that he was mistaken somehow and would face some sort of punishment as a result.

“Calm down kid, no one’s going to knife you or anything like that. Just show us where to sleep,” The apprentice’s face turned the same shade of scarlet as his robes and he quickly hurried away from the door and out into the school beyond, “Yikes I think I broke him.”

“Let’s just follow him and get some rest. We need to push ourselves as hard as we can tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My two favorite utter disasters are here and god do I love them way too much for characters who literally haven't shown up at all in the actual show. Also a fun note but this chapter was marked in my outline as "Beau and Nott roll several Nat 20's on persuasion". Anyways that's pretty much all I have to say about this chapter, I just felt like gushing a little over Astrid and Eodwulf here at the end. I may or may not have a slightly unreasonable amount of headcanons about them already fleshed out.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This'll be my last update of the year so I wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday! A huge thank you to everyone who's read this, who's commented or given me a kudos because that really does mean the world to me. I won't ramble about my life here but actually putting my work out there is something I've always struggled with, especially things I haven't checked over half a dozen times and completed and then rewritten, so the fact that you all seem to truly be enjoying this fic is something I never would have thought was possible. So thank you all from the bottom of my heart and I'm hoping to see you all again in the new year!

It was hard to stay in the manor that was his former home but it had been even harder to make himself leave the sanctuary that provided to gather the last of the supplies he would need for the ritual. As much as passing through the empty hallways made his skin itch and burn the layers upon layers of enchantments had turned this place into a fortress of protective magic, something Caleb knew he would be needing now that the rest of the Nein had been informed of where he was. His former party were devastatingly effective when they were driven to be and it was that thought that had forced Caleb out of his hiding and into a magical disguise to search the markets of Rexxentrum. It was highly likely that they would be arriving within the next few days at the latest so this would be his last safe chance to purchase his supplies and hole himself back up in safety before they were in the city.

The magical market was buzzing with lively chatter and ambient arcane energy as Caleb stepped into it, setting his nerves on edge and making him wish for the comforting weight of Frumpkin around his shoulders. Instead he slipped his hands into his pockets, allowing his fingers to rub anxiously across the seams inside them as a way to anchor his mind. Expertly he navigated the outskirts of the crowds as he scanned the brightly colored storefronts displaying all manner of magical goods and services. Some of the components he needed he knew he would find in this section of the market but he also knew that their purchase would come with questions. Everything here was regulated and catalogued down to the last stick of incense or piece of enchanted parchment. A practice to keep those the Empire didn’t approve of from accessing the tools they would need to gain the power and knowledge to ask questions. Thoughts of Beau’s incessant need to demand knowledge and Jester’s constant questioning of everything caused a stab of pain to cut through the wizard and a sad smile formed on his face. Soon there would be no need for their questions to go unanswered for the sake of their safety.

It took longer than he liked to find the tavern he had been looking for, the Cunning Dragon, a place he had heard about throughout his years as a student in the city as the best place to go if you were looking for an intellectual conversation. It wasn’t until years later he had heard that it was also home to the most expansive magical black market in the entire Empire. According to the rumors he had heard the tavern upstairs was a place that fueled the fires inside of magic users while the illegal market it was connected to provided them with the materials they needed to attempt to burn the world, whether they wished to see new civilizations rise from the ashes or just to enjoy watching order fall apart. Even the thought of going into a place like that made his stomach turn and prompted the small voice in the back of his mind that sounded far too like Trent for his liking to start whispering at him to purge everyone who would dare to oppose the Empire. With a deep breath to steady his frayed nerves Caleb stepped inside the tavern.

Despite what he had been expecting the main room of the tavern itself was an instant relief from controlled chaos of the outside. Soft music filled the air from a stage set in the corner of the large room and unlit torches lined the walls in favor of a central fireplace to light the room when night fell. Well polished tables were scattered throughout, spacious enough to provide workspace for several people at once without any worry of clutter or a wayward elbow. Large windows allowed daylight to stream into the room from the outside and looking up revealed a large window set into the ceiling as a means of viewing the movements of the sun and stars. The bar was set against the back wall of the room, manned by a green dragonborn who was busying themself in conversation with several of the patrons as they cleaned empty glasses.

It wasn’t until he breathed out that Caleb realized he had been holding the breath he took outside and he had the sudden urge to laugh at himself. Here he was planning a ritual that would enable him to rewrite worlds and the thought of entering a tavern where there may be rogue arcanists had scared him into near inaction. With a quick shake of his head he began to make his way over to the bartender, pointedly avoiding looking at the smiling faces of students in scarlet and crimson robes as they bent over books in discussion with one another. As he approached the bar the dragonborn looked his way and Caleb swore he could feel the faintest hints of magic wash over him as they gave him a look over. Trying his best to appear as casual as possible Caleb took a seat at an empty stool at the end of the bar and waited as the dragonborn excused themself from their conversation to come over to him.

“Always glad to see new faces in here,” they said conversationally as they approached him, “Welcome to the Cunning Dragon, my friend. What can we do for you?” Calling upon his wealth of experience dealing with politics Caleb summoned a smile to his face and rested his arms leisurely on the counter, leaning forward slightly.

“I am new to the city and heard that your establishment was the finest gathering place for intellectuals outside of Soltryce Academy. I thought to come check out the rumors for myself.” A slight hesitation flickered over the dragonborn’s face for a moment, giving Caleb just enough time to worry he may have overdone the lie, before it was replaced with a kind smile.

“You’ve heard correctly, although I do admit that much of my business does come from those students so it would be more fair to say that the Academy and myself tend to overlap with our patrons. Tell me where are you travelling from? You look like you could do with a night or two of decent sleep.” 

“Deastok. My employer sent me to the city to seek out some information that’s been eluding us for quite some time. We happened across a peculiar incantation and were hoping that perhaps the Academy might be willing to lend us it’s resources to decode it.” That seemed to catch the dragonborn’s attention and the stepped closer to the bar, also leaning onto its polished hardwood surface.

“Unfortunately the Academy doesn’t often help those outside it’s boundaries but perhaps the knowledge of someone here could help you. Tell me this incantation of yours and I might be able to point you in the right direction.” Almost of their own free will Caleb’s fingers tapped nervously on the bar, a fact that made the dragonborn across from him smirk faintly.

“Perhaps that would be the best choice. Very well,” a quick glance around showed no one was paying attention to the two of them and Caleb allowed himself to slip into the lilting sounds of Celestial, “ _ What can be swallowed can consume, what can bring strength can also bring defeat. _ ” The dragonborn’s smirk widened and they leaned back from the bar.

“You’re in luck my friend, I happen to know someone who might be able to help you out with your problem. If you’d follow me I’d gladly introduce the two of you.” With that they moved out from behind the bar, eyes glowing faintly with an arcane shimmer as they started to walk towards the other end of the tavern. Hurriedly Caleb gathered up what little courage he had left and followed them across the tavern. The students he had seen earlier seemed entirely oblivious to the fact that the bar had gotten marginally quieter as they continued their discussion amongst themselves as Caleb passed by them. The bartender led him to a door that was nearly seamlessly laid into the wall and laid a hand on it for a moment before the door swung itself inwards. Caleb continued to follow the dragonborn down the stairs that had been hidden behind the door, fighting his urge to look back over his shoulder every few seconds. A powerful surge of longing poured over him as he wished he had comrades at his back once again. Falling back into the habit of always checking and double checking was surprisingly lonely. After a minute they reached a dimly lit basement at the bottom of the stairs and the dragonborn turned to look back at Caleb.

“Your path continues to the other end of this room, there you’ll find the answer you’re looking for. Once you do feel free to go upstairs and enjoy all we have to offer.” Caleb nodded and flicked his hand out, sending a small sphere of light in front of his face. 

“Thank you for your assistance.”

“Of course. Now, be on your way.” With that the dragonborn made their way back up the stairs to the bar, the sound of the door swinging shut signalling to Caleb that he was truly alone now. With another flick of his wrist two more orbs of light appeared beside the third before they spread out across the room, giving him enough visibility to safely make his way towards the back wall of the chamber. When he reached the far wall the brick in front of him was plain and unpainted and for a moment Caleb was worried he was being played for a fool. Pulling his lights in closer to himself Caleb carefully reached out a hand to trace along the grooves between the bricks. At first it seemed like there was nothing special to the wall until the pads of his fingers caught on a small, barely visible character that had been carved into the mortar. A second trace over of the character brought the realization that it was a letter from the Celestial alphabet. Mentally noting where the letter was positioned along the wall Caleb eagerly began to search for the next and within minutes he had found four more Celestial letters scattered amongst the unassuming bricks. Another moment of thought was all it took for the answer to the riddle to reveal itself to him.

“ _ Pride _ .” Light flashed in the corner of Caleb’s eye and as he startled and whirled to look for it’s source his eyes landed on a faintly glowing doorway barely a foot away from him. The doorway was made of swirling shadows flecked with pinpricks of colored lights, the same color as the bartender’s eyes had earlier he noted, but appeared nonthreatening. Dismissing his lights Caleb crossed the distance in a few easy steps and passed through the door. Utter darkness surrounded him for a moment and then he was stepping into what appeared to be a fairly normal looking stone hallway, aside from the multitude of similar shadowy doors lining the walls. He had to stop for a moment just to appreciate the sheer brilliance of the formation of this black market before setting his mind back to the task at hand. He had a lot to accomplish and not nearly enough time to do it with the way his party had to be rapidly closing in on him. Clenching his fists in his pockets Caleb moved further into the black market and ever closer to achieving everything he had ever dared to hope for.


End file.
